Indonesia: Namru will stay closed, but a new -civilian- lab will be opened.

[Gert van der Hoek]

Health Ministry To Reopen Namru

New Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih said on Friday that the controversial United States Naval Medical Research Unit-2 shut down by previous health minister Siti Fadillah Supari for alleged non-scientific activities, including espionage, would reopen with a new name and under civilian control.

Endang, speaking after the first meeting of the new cabinet, said the research unit, also known as Namru, had been shut down because of its military links, but civilian-to-civilian cooperation with the United States in the field of biomedical research would continue.

?The Namru military presence no longer exists,? Endang said, adding that the unit had been renamed the Indonesia-United States Center for Medical Research, or IUS.

Endang, a former researcher at the Ministry of Health, has not denied her close links to Namru, which Siti had accused of helping develop biological weapons.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates dismissed Siti?s claim during a visit to Jakarta last year as ?the nuttiest idea I?ve ever heard.?

Endang, whom Siti demoted in 2008 for taking bird flu samples out of the country without permission, said the IUS would focus on the development of vaccines and diagnostic tools and the identification of viruses and bacteria.

Separately, Patra M. Zen, chairman of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, urged President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to establish an independent team to investigate Namru, and similar operations, before allowing the Health Ministry to establish new cooperation agreements.

He said the government should not approve any cooperation agreement that did not offer sufficient benefits to Indonesia.

The Medical Emergency Rescue Committee, a Islamic nongovernmental organization that has been linked to hardline groups and individuals, also went on the offensive during a news conference on Friday.

MER-C representative Jose Rizal said that though the new agreement involved civilians, the government should still be wary. ?We have to be alert of such agreements because they could be a new Namru with a different face.? Jose said.

?If they already have the virus, they can make the vaccine. The vaccine can be sold at a very high price,? Jose said. ?The virus can even be used to create a new disease, just to make a vaccine that can be sold.?

Jose urged the government to monitor such operations and involve more local researchers, adding it would be best if the government halted all foreign involvement. ?We want the virus samples not to fall into the wrong hands. If they were misused, like for creating biological weapons, then it would be a dangerous for us and the world,? Jose said.

http://thejakartaglobe.com/news/health-ministry-to-reopen-namru/337343

 

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Indonesia: Health Ministry To Reopen Namru

Re: Indonesia: Health Ministry To Reopen Namru

Mrs Endang, the new Minister of Health, used to work for Namru 2, so I am told.

 

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Indonesia: Health Ministry To Reopen Namru

Re: Indonesia: Health Ministry To Reopen Namru

New health minister to keep Namru-2 closed

Sat, 10/24/2009

Newly inaugurated Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih said Friday she would follow in the steps of her predecessor by maintaining a suspension of the US Navy's Naval Medical Research Unit (Namru-2) laboratory in Jakarta.

Speaking after the first Cabinet meeting of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's second term in office, Endang said the Health Ministry's cooperation with the United States would only con-tinue under a civilian biomedical research lab called the Indonesia-United States Center for Medical Research (IUC).

"We had to close *Namru-2* because it was a military unit," said the Harvard-educated minister.

"But Indonesia's cooperation with the US will still go on and covers a wide range of areas, including in the operation of the bio-medical lab.

"The details of the cooperation will be set out later, but the point is it will be aimed at advancing our technology in the biomedical field."

Endang added among the things the IUC could probably work on were vaccines and diagnostic tools development, as well as virus and bacteria identification.

"I will look further into the matter because it will be part of the Health Ministry's 100-day program," she added.

Namru-2 began operating in Indonesia in 1970 as a joint research lab to study virus strings under a partnership between the US Navy and the Indonesian Health Ministry.

The lab is located in the ministry's research and development center.

In 2000, it was closed after its contract expired, but the Indonesian government under then-president Abdurrahman Wahid allowed it to continue operating under the signing of an MoU.

In 2005, it was closed once again only to start back up in 2006.

Last year, after the House of Re-presentatives demanded a review of the lab's scope of work, it was again closed down.

In recent years, the presence of the lab sparked controversy after the US government requested diplomatic immunity for the lab's US staff.

Indonesia insisted only the director and deputy director of the lab be granted diplomatic privileges, including diplomatic immunity, but the US sought diplomatic privileges to be extended to all Americans working at the lab.

The Health Ministry, under then-minister Siti Fadillah Supari, along with the Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry have been the most vocal opponents of the lab.

Siti signed an MoU with the US government in Washington in September to replace Namru-2 with the civilian IUC lab.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/10/24/new-health-minister-keep-namru2-closed.html

 

[Shiloh]

Re: Indonesia: Namru will stay closed, but a new -civilian- lab will be opened .

Re: Indonesia: Namru will stay closed, but a new -civilian- lab will be opened .

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE59N0R020091024?sp=true

Indonesia says no policy change on bird flu samples
Sat Oct 24, 2009 6:04am EDT

By Karima Anjani

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia does not intend to resume sharing bird flu samples with other countries until there is a global mechanism for virus sharing in place, the newly appointed health minister told Reuters on Saturday.

Indonesia, which has suffered the most confirmed deaths from the H5N1 bird flu virus, has been holding out for guarantees from richer nations and drugmakers that poor countries get access to affordable vaccines derived from their samples.

But the move has drawn global concern, since experts say it is vital to have access to samples of the constantly mutating virus, which they fear could change into a form easily transmissible among humans and sweep the world in months, killing millions of people.

"It depends on the international treaty result regarding the standard material transfer agreement, I will closely monitor this," Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih said.

The World Health Organisation's more than 190 member states have been holding negotiations on virus sharing, but a sticking point has been how and when biological samples of viruses would be shared with the world's pharmaceutical companies who need them to make vaccines, an issue known as "material transfer."

Jakarta wants a material transfer agreement for each sample of the virus sent to foreign labs, specifying it will be used only for diagnostic purposes and not for commercial gain.

H5N1 bird flu has been circulating in Asia for years but it has hit Indonesia harder than any other country. Although it only rarely infects people, it has killed 262 out of 442 infected globally since 2003, according to the WHO website. At least 115 Indonesians have been killed by the virus.

The health minister also said there were no plans to reopen a U.S. Naval laboratory operating in Indonesia but biomedical research with the United States would take place instead under a civilian-to-civilian program.

The U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit No. 2, or NAMRU-2 for short, was central to Indonesia's early efforts to track H5N1. It was one of the few labs globally capable of the genetic analysis needed to identify H5N1 at the beginning of the epidemic.

The lab had been in Indonesia since 1970 and is one of five in the world, but its future became politicized after some Indonesian officials said its operations were not transparent.

U.S. officials have previously denied there was a lack of transparency and said the lab benefited both countries.

Paul Belmont, a spokesman at the U.S. embassy in Jakarta, said the new civilian facility -- the Indonesia-U.S. Biomedical and Health Research Center -- would be established under a memorandum of understanding between the United States and Indonesia's previous health minister, Siti Fadilah Supari, signed last month.

Sedyaningsih, who earned her public health doctorate at Harvard University, said both countries were still discussing the structure and budget for the new civilian lab. "I need to clarify that NAMRU won't be reopened, we will stick to the previous policy, the new one will be civilian-to-civilian cooperation with the U.S. health department, there's no military link," Sedyaningsih said.

(Editing by Ed Davies)

 

[gsgs]

Re: Indonesia: Namru will stay closed, but a new -civilian- lab will be opened .

Re: Indonesia: Namru will stay closed, but a new -civilian- lab will be opened .

hi Endang, can we have some actual sequences please for analysis ?
For the benefit of Indonesia and the rest of the world.

You can remove the HA, so we can't make a vaccine from it,
which Indonesia can't afford.

Preferrably from swine, since I have heard, that ~10% of Indonesian
swine have (---edit---:had) H5N1.

 

[Commonground]

Re: Indonesia: Health Ministry To Reopen Namru

Re: Indonesia: Health Ministry To Reopen Namru

Mrs Endang, the new Minister of Health, used to work for Namru 2, so I am told.

Dutchy, did you hear this?

gsgs wrote:

since I have heard, that ~10% of Indonesian
swine have H5N1.

Seems like there is information other than that found in news sites.

 

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Indonesia: Namru will stay closed, but a new -civilian- lab will be opened .

Re: Indonesia: Namru will stay closed, but a new -civilian- lab will be opened .

since I have heard, that ~10% of Indonesian
swine have H5N1.

Yes, I heard that too: from gsgs .. May be he has a source?

H5N1 was reported in pigs in several regions, one could make an estimate?

We know - thanks to dr. Nidom - H5N1 seems to adapt itself to pigs in Indonesia:

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/avianflu/news/mar3109swine-jw.html

Indonesia being a Muslim country, has relatively few pigs: about 7.5 million, not much if you relate it to a human population of more than 200 million.

You can find pigs concentred in certain regions, like Bali, South Sulawesi, North Sumatra, and scattered elswhere. Many pigs mingle with poultry.

There is some surveillance, I would not be surprised if the surveillance found very interesting virus strains in pigs in Indonesia .

Nidom and Mahardika for instance, sometimes publish something, but they must find their way carefully in the political minefields, a wrong step could hurt their research activities.

We in the Western countries can't ask more from Indonesia, than we do ourselves. We know surveillance and publishing results in Northern America and Europe is not without problems too, to put it mildly.

 

[Commonground]

Re: Indonesia: Namru will stay closed, but a new -civilian- lab will be opened .

Re: Indonesia: Namru will stay closed, but a new -civilian- lab will be opened .

Thanks Dutchy. I haven't been keeping up on Indo. I thought it was a new development....

 

[Laidback Al]

Re: Indonesia: Namru will stay closed, but a new -civilian- lab will be opened .

Re: Indonesia: Namru will stay closed, but a new -civilian- lab will be opened .

RI aims at resolution of military ban in US partnership: Ministry

Lilian Budianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 03/05/2010 11:07 AM | World


Jakarta is seeking a “long-term political commitment” with Washington to resolve pending issues in the comprehensive partnership that leaders of both countries will launch this month, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

snip

“We’re seeking long-term commitment for relations. We’ve identified the problems in bilateral relations as well as future challenges and possible solutions.
“The comprehensive partnership is a political declaration for closer relations, not an agreement.”
The comprehensive partnership, first proposed by Jakarta in 2008, will be launched during the visit by US President Barack Obama to Indonesia on March 22.
It covers a wide area of cooperation, including economic, climate change, health, education and defense.
Jakarta and Washington have also negotiated a new cooperation on health following the closure of the US Navy’s Naval Medical Research Unit (Namru-2) laboratory in Jakarta. Namru was closed down after Jakarta and Washington failed to agree on its operational procedure, including on diplomatic immunity sought by Washington for US staff working at the lab.
Retno said the points of cooperation on a new civilian biomedical research lab, the Indonesia—United States Center for Medical Research, were still being discussed, with reciprocating visits by US and Indonesian negotiators having taken place.
She declined to elaborate on the pending points on the negotiations, saying the joint research highlighted lab cooperation, and adding, “We haven’t reached a deal on that.”


http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/...ion-military-ban-us-partnership-ministry.html